Linking Personality and SES Influences on Lifespan Health

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In this K08 Mentored Career Development Award application, Ben Chapman, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), proposes to integrate approaches from personality psychology and social epidemiology to study socioeconomically (SES) based health disparities across the latter part of life. Proposed are a comprehensive educational plan, original data collection, and secondary analyses of existing datasets designed to equip the applicant to become a leading investigator of how the social stratification in lifespan health trajectories is influenced by individual personality. He will receive formal training in social epidemiology, health and aging, and multilevel statistics through formal coursework and mentored didactics with a team of nationally recognized experts in these areas. Dr. Chapman's research program proposes two scientific aims, based on a synthesis of theory and findings from social epidemiology and personality and health, under a conceptual framework of life course epidemiology. The Aims examine the interaction between personality and SES factors influencing health behaviors and general illness burden across the second half of life. New data collection focuses on how personality influences health under conditions of socioeconomic deprivation, involving 18-24 month follow up of a pilot cohort (N=106) of ethnically diverse, lower SES middle age and older adults currently being accrued. This will provide Dr. Chapman with valuable experience following a small cohort over a short time, in preparation for larger studies, and obtain health data rare in existing data sources, like inflammatory biomarkers. Existing data sources are selected for longitudinal information on personality, SES, and health, permitting well-powered hypothesis tests over the Midlife Development in the US, Hawaii Culture and Health, and Older Adults in Primary Care studies. From a public health view, lifespan health is powerfully tied to social inequalities; but not all disadvantaged people suffer worse, and not all advantaged people enjoy better health as they age. Attention to individual psychological and behavioral dispositions can aid understanding of this heterogeneity. Blending personality and social epidemiology will better illuminate the interface between person and social structure in healthy aging.